don't mean to reopen this can of worms but.
Some stuff also happened here.
Topic on User talk:Astounding Beyond Belief
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None of this is new information; KOTM covered it all in a back-and-forth in February. (The conversation branches off a few times, so you'll have to click around a bit to get all of it.)
Shorter route to debunking the trademark claim: merch of the 1998 Godzilla has called him Godzilla as recently as last year. The version of the film on Tubi also retains the Godzilla copyright info at the end.
The spiral studio post called it Zilla but seemed to be talking about the G98 film when mentioning the Set and Animatronics
Not sure why though.
They're saying "Zilla" in reference to their model, although I don't think it would be relevant if they did make reference to "the Zilla animatronic" or similar. Toho's not reviewing every social media post by its licensors.
So why exactly did they invoke G98 Iconography with the promo pics of zilla in nyc and his name in the style of the g98 logo?
Ultimately that's a question only the company can answer. Maybe they did their research and knew that the ensuing discourse would raise awareness of the statue. Or Zilla was cheaper to license. Or Toho was being capricious and wouldn't let them call the statue Godzilla, and they pushed it as far as they could. Toho isn't above double standards when it comes to certain incarnations; they wouldn't let NECA make a Hanna-Barbera Godzilla figure, for instance, then let Mondo do it a few years later.
Oh, found another 1998 Godzilla toy called Godzilla from last year: https://us.ric-toy.com/200020r-wldna.html
so you're suggesting it was a marketing ploy to get attention?
That was the least-serious of my suggestions (but if it was, it sure worked).
There's also a G'98 model kit, revealed after the Spiral Studios statue, that calls him Godzilla: https://twitter.com/tanakastudio/status/1634172984771612672
